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K.R. Deepak

Making it as safe as a physical transaction

L.N. Revathy

With the growth of online banking and frauds thereon (including phishing and pharming scams), customers and financial institutions seem united in their quest for a secure solution.

Multi-factor authentication involves providing two or more parameters and is considered fairly safe. So apart from the user login-ID and password, your bank, for instance, may want to know the name of your pet or the colour of your first car when you pay bills online, by way of securing online banking transactions.

Identification by physical characteristics like fingerprints (biometrics) is popular for some multi-factor authentication, though not online banking. Financial institutions use multi-factor systems, including biometrics, to control access to physical facilities such as computer rooms and makers of ATMs experiment with fingerprint readers and software that recognises customers’ faces.

Voice ID (sometimes called voice authentication, voiceprint) is a type of user authentication that uses voice prints and pattern recognition software to verify a speaker. Voice ID relies on the fact that vocal characteristics are unique for each individual just as fingerprints and retinal pattern.

“An individual’s speech pattern has more unique qualities and is often recognised as the most natural form of biometrics. The human voice is also considered the most common form of communication and is an ideal form of personal identification, because your voice can never be lost, stolen or shared without your knowledge,” says Arunan, co-founder and Director of Bay Talkitec.

Bay Talkitec recently announced a biometric voice authentication facility which is expected to enable contact centres improve caller experience by streamlining the log-in process, increase security and do away with forgettable PINs and passwords.

“Our voice authentication technology also works with existing IVR systems, including Bay Talkitec’s SmartCall Customer Interaction Management Platform and can be easily integrated with current call centre infrastructure.

We see huge market potential in this next generation identity validation technology both from a security perspective and with concerns of privacy on the rise.

The criteria that a voice ID system bases decisions on are created by the shape of the speaker’s mouth and throat, rather than more variable conditions. Because of the relative permanence of the characteristics it measures, the technology is not likely to be fooled by an attempt to disguise a voice, and is not generally affected by changes that can make a voice sound quite different to the human ear, such as a bad cold or extreme emotion,” says Arunan.

During enrolment for a voice authentication system, a user’s voice is recorded, creating what is called a voiceprint for comparison with samples taken for user identification. To foil attempts to fool the system with a pre-recorded voice sample, people may be asked to read or repeat a list of words which they can then be requested to repeat in random combinations.

Voice ID systems have been used in a variety of security-related applications. The US’ judicial system has used the technology, on a limited basis, for about 10 years, to ensure that prisoners incarcerated in their homes or out on temporary passes were where they were supposed to be. Voice-based systems can be effective where secure authentication is especially important.

In fact, it needs no extra hardware such as the ones required for finger prints, retinal and facial capture.

The authentication is carried out using voice circuit media which is different from IP media. It ensures additional security and convenience of use and above all can be accessed wherever telephone is available, explains Arunan.

Banks and credit card companies are increasingly turning to voice authentication as a means of decreasing the potential for fraud and identity theft and at the same time, cutting the costs associated with customer verification, he says.

lnr@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Banking | E-Commerce & E-Business | Security | Internet | Technology

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